Hi all,
We are meeting with Commissioner Bettman on April 21 in New York. We
will have a limited chance to get across an important message.
Hockey's growth as a "business" is seriously threatening the future of
the game for everyone. We fans have always done our part, paying
higher and higher ticket prices and putting up with expansion,
strikes/lock-outs and relocating teams.
In Canada, where hockey is part of our national identity, our federal,
provincial and regional governments are currently listening to the
cries from small market Canadian teams seeking tax relief. All this
lobbying may gain the clubs some tax relief, but no one is sure how
much; nor is this the complete solution.
The fans and the government (in both Canada and the U.S.) are doing
their part, but what are the NHL and NHL Players' Association doing to
address the basic problem that hockey is becoming too expensive for the
average fan?
So, here is what we are propose as the NHLFA's current mandate:
We want to lobby the NHL Players' Association and the owners to
cooperate by adding a team/players' salary cap to the existing
collective bargaining agreement, as soon as possible, and not wait for
the agreement to expire in 2004. With this salary cap, we want a
corresponding cap on ticket prices.
As a secondary issue, we want the NHL to level the playing field and
deal once and for all with the on-going problem of the difference in
Canadian and US currency for players' salaries.
Please visit this site (http://www.nhlfa.com/minipoll/) and provide us
with your opinion regarding our stance with the Commissioner.
And finally, we now have NHLFA golf shirts for sale. Please visit The
Store (http://www.nhlfa.com/thestore/thestore.asp) and help support your NHLFA.
Thanks,
The Jims
boone@nhlfa.com
spendlove@nhlfa.com
P.S. On another matter, following are the results of our mini-poll
about Mario Lemieux. We realize now this was not of broad interest to
NHLFA members (only 10% of you responded) and we will not send out
these kind of questions in the future. For those who are interested,
here are the results anyway.
The question was: If Mario Lemieux's fledgling ownership group takes
control of the Pittsburgh Penguins, should Super Mario come out of
retirement and resume playing to help the Pens restore their financial
stability?
Yes - 24.5%
No - 71.7%
Don't Know - 3.7%
|
